Contents

The .476 Enfield cartridge was only in British service for a comparatively short period before it was replaced by the black powder-loaded .455 Webley Mark I in 1887[1] and then by the smokeless powder-loaded .455 Webley Mark II in September 1897.[1] Just over 1,000[2] Enfield Mark IIs were issued to the North-West Mounted Police, and these remained in service until 1911,[2] when the last Enfields were phased out in favour of more modern (and reliable) .45 ColtNew Service revolvers.[2]

Using the same bullet as the .455 (11.6mm) Webley Mark I,[1] the .476 casing was 0.05 mm (0.002 in) longer[1] and carried a charge of 18 gr (1.17 g) of black powder, compared to 6.5 gr (0.42 g) of cordite in the .455 Mark I.[1] While the .476 Enfield cartridge could be used in any British-manufactured .455 Webley calibre service revolver, there were issues with the later-production Colt or Smith & Wesson .455 Revolver models, which were liable to have slightly smaller bore diameters.[1]

Despite the difference in designation, the .476 readily interchanged with the earlier .450 Adams and .455 Webley rounds[2] (the latter in black powder Mark I and smokeless Marks II through VI),[1] as well as the .455 Colt (a U.S. commercial brand for the same .455 Webley round, with slightly different ballistics),[3] which all used the same .455 in (11.6mm) bullet, the distinction being which diameter was measured.[2] Officially, .450 Adams, .476 Enfield, and .455 Webley cartridges could all be fired in the Webley Mark III British Government Model revolver;[4][page needed] although case length, bullet weight and shape, and powder charge differed, all three cartridges featured a case diameter of .476 inch with a bullet diameter of .455 inch, which could be fired in a barrel of .450 inch bore.

1.
Royal Small Arms Factory
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The Royal Small Arms Factory was a UK government-owned rifle factory in the London Borough of Enfield in an area generally known as the Lea Valley. The factory produced British military rifles, muskets and swords from 1816 and it closed in 1988, but some of its work was transferred to other sites. The factory was located at Enfield Lock on an island bordered by the River Lea. It was built on the instructions of the Board of Ordnance near the end of the Napoleonic War, the land was acquired in 1812 and the factory completed by 1816. Neighbouring farmland was acquired to become an area to test ordnance from the Royal Gunpowder Mill. The RSAF was originally all situated on the east side of the Lea, in the county of Essex in Waltham Abbey parish, the course of the river was diverted during the life of the factory, and part of the site then fell in Enfield parish. Local boundary changes initiated by SI 1993/1141 after it closed transferred the site entirely from Epping Forest to the London Borough of Enfield, the original ambitious plans by Captain John By included three mills. Later, the engineer John Rennie recommended the construction of a navigable leat, the leat was made, although only one mill with two waterwheels was completed. In 1816 the barrel branch was transferred from Lewisham, and by 1818 the lock and finishing branches had been moved to the site, a sword-making department was set up in 1823. The factory fought off the threat of closure in 1831, and remained quite modest in size until the Crimean War of 1853/1856, by 1856 a machine shop was built on American mass-production lines, using American machinery powered by steam engines. The shop was based on a design by John Anderson and built by the Royal Engineers, the workforce increased to 1000, and by 1860 an average of 1,744 rifles were produced per week. In 1866 another major expansion took place, when the watermill gave way to steampower, the total number of steam engines grew to sixteen, and by 1887 there were 2,400 employees. Production of the new rifle designed by James Paris Lee began in 1889. The famous Lee–Enfield rifle was designed in 1895, the factory expanded again in World War I, and in World War II. Both of these have long been closed, decline set in after World War II, and in 1963 half the site was closed. The Royal Small Arms Factory was privatised in 1984 along with a number of Royal Ordnance Factories to become part of Royal Ordnance Plc and they closed the site in 1988. The factory was set up because of disappointment with the poor quality, at this time in Britain, they were built as individual gun components mainly in the Gun Quarter, Birmingham by a number of independent manufacturers and then hand-assembled to produce rifles. These component makers eventually combined to become the Birmingham Small Arms Company, the Enfield factory was intended to improve the quality and to drive down costs

2.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again

3.
British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least once every five years, day to day the Army comes under administration of the Ministry of Defence and is commanded by the Chief of the General Staff. Repeatedly emerging victorious from these decisive wars allowed Britain to influence world events with its policies and establish itself as one of the leading military. In 1660 the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were restored under Charles II, Charles favoured the foundation of a new army under royal control and began work towards its establishment by August 1660. The Royal Scots Army and the Irish Army were financed by the Parliament of Scotland, the order of seniority of the most senior line regiments in the British Army is based on the order of seniority in the English army. At that time there was only one English regiment of dragoons, after William and Marys accession to the throne, England involved itself in the War of the Grand Alliance, primarily to prevent a French invasion restoring Marys father, James II. Spain, in the two centuries, had been the dominant global power, and the chief threat to Englands early transatlantic ambitions. The territorial ambitions of the French, however, led to the War of the Spanish Succession and the Napoleonic Wars. From the time of the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, Great Britain was the naval power. As had its predecessor, the English Army, the British Army fought the Kingdoms of Spain, France, and the Netherlands for supremacy in North America and the West Indies. With native and provincial assistance, the Army conquered New France in the North American theatre of the Seven Years War, the British Army suffered defeat in the American War of Independence, losing the Thirteen Colonies but holding on to Canada. The British Army was heavily involved in the Napoleonic Wars and served in campaigns across Europe. The war between the British and the First French Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte stretched around the world and at its peak, in 1813, the regular army contained over 250,000 men. A Coalition of Anglo-Dutch and Prussian Armies under the Duke of Wellington, the English had been involved, both politically and militarily, in Ireland since being given the Lordship of Ireland by the Pope in 1171. The campaign of the English republican Protector, Oliver Cromwell, involved uncompromising treatment of the Irish towns that had supported the Royalists during the English Civil War, the English Army stayed in Ireland primarily to suppress numerous Irish revolts and campaigns for independence. Having learnt from their experience in America, the British government sought a political solution, the British Army found itself fighting Irish rebels, both Protestant and Catholic, primarily in Ulster and Leinster in the 1798 rebellion. The Haldane Reforms of 1907 formally created the Territorial Force as the Armys volunteer reserve component by merging and reorganising the Volunteer Force, Militia, Great Britains dominance of the world had been challenged by numerous other powers, in the 20th century, most notably Germany

4.
North-West Mounted Police
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The North-West Mounted Police was a Canadian police force. It was established in 1873, and in 1904 the name was changed to Royal Northwest Mounted Police, in 1920 it merged with the Dominion Police to become the current Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Reports from Army officers surveying the territory led to the recommendation that a force of 100 to 150 mounted riflemen could maintain law, the North-West Mounted Police was established by an act of legislation from the Temporary North-West Council the first territorial government of the Northwest Territories. The need was particularly urgent given reports of American whiskey traders, in particular those of Fort Whoop-Up, causing trouble in the region, the first NWMP commissioner, Colonel George Arthur French was a British artillery officer who was born in Co. Roscommon, Ireland, and would have been familiar with the R. I. C, while the model of the Royal Irish Constabulary was influential in some respects British army traditions were strong. The Governor General explained that, though nominally policemen, the men will be dressed in scarlet uniform, however, the original idea was not forgotten. Assistant Commissioner A. G. Irvine visited Dublin to study the Constabulary in early 1880, when he became Commissioner in November of that year he began to apply the lessons he had learned there. The initial force, commanded by Commissioner French, was assembled at Fort Dufferin, most had left Toronto June 6,1874, by a special train via Chicago. Special arrangements were made with the US government to permit them to travel with guns and they departed Fort Dufferin on July 8 on a march to what is now Alberta. The group comprised 22 officers,287 men – constables and sub-constables –310 horses,67 wagons,114 ox-carts,18 yoke of oxen,50 cows and 40 calves. The youngest member of expedition was only 14 years of age, a pictorial account of the journey was recorded in the diary of Henri Julien, an artist from the Canadian Illustrated News, who accompanied the expedition. Their destination was Fort Whoop-Up, a notorious American whisky-trading post located at the junction of the St. Mary River and Oldman Rivers. Following incorrect maps and low on supplies, a contingent rode south from the Cypress Hills to Fort Benton, Montana Territory, after returning to the main column troop, Jerry Potts led the force west to Fort Whoop-Up. They were greeted at the fort by a few men, who invited them in for dinner, the force was unable to find any whiskey, the Americans having been forewarned of the troops impending arrival by suppliers at Fort Benton. Their first strike on the traders came after a Native complained at Fort Macleod about a group of whisky traders who had sold him overpriced whisky. Shortly after, the NWMP caught and fined the perpetrators, the presence of the NWMP lessened whisky trading activity, but it still occurred. In the early years, the dedication to enforcing the law on behalf of the First Nations peoples impressed the latter enough to encourage good relations between them and the Crown. Walsh and Sitting Bull became good friends, and the peace at Wood Mountain was maintained, by 1879, bands of Sioux began to return to the United States, but Sitting Bull and others remained

5.
Bullet
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The word bullet is a firearm term. A bullet is a projectile expelled from the barrel of a firearm, the term is from Middle French and originated as the diminutive of the word boulle which means small ball. Bullets are made of a variety of materials and they are available singly as they would be used in muzzle loading and cap and ball firearms, as part of a paper cartridge, and much more commonly as a component of metallic cartridges. Bullets are made in a numbers of styles and constructions depending on how they will be used. Many bullets have specialized functions, such as hunting, target shooting, training, defense, a bullet is not a cartridge. In paper and metallic cartridges a bullet is one component of the cartridge, bullet sizes are expressed by their weight and diameter in both English and Metric measurement systems. For example.22 caliber 55 grain bullets or 5. 56mm 55 grain bullets are the same caliber, the word bullet is often used colloquially to refer to a cartridge, which is a combination of the bullet, paper or metallic case/shell, powder, and primer. This use of bullet, when cartridge is intended, leads to confusion when the components of a cartridge are discussed or intended, the bullets used in many cartridges are fired at a muzzle velocity faster than the speed of sound. Meaning they are supersonic and thus can travel a substantial distance, bullet speed through air depends on a number of factors such as barometric pressure, humidity, air temperature, and wind speed. Subsonic cartridges fire bullets slower than the speed of sound and so there is no sonic crack and this means that a subsonic cartridge such as.45 ACP can be effectively suppressed to be substantially quieter than a supersonic cartridge such as the.223 Remington. Bullets do not normally contain explosives, but damage the target by impact. The first use of gunpowder in Europe was recorded in 1247 and it had been used in China for hundreds of years. Later in 1364 hand cannon appeared, early projectiles were made of stone. Stone was used in cannon and hand cannon, in cannon it was eventually found that stone would not penetrate stone fortifications which gave rise to the use of heavier metals for the round projectiles. Hand cannon projectiles developed in a similar following the failure of stone from siege cannon. The first recorded instance of a ball from a hand cannon penetrating armor occurred in 1425. In this photograph of shot retrieved from the wreck of the Mary Rose which was sunk in 1545, the round shot are clearly of different sizes and some are stone while others are cast iron. The development of the hand culverin and matchlock arquebus brought about the use of cast lead balls as projectiles, bullet is derived from the French word boulette, which roughly means little ball

6.
Primer (firearm)
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In firearm ballistics, the primer is a component of pistol, rifle, and shotgun rounds. Early primers were simply the same black powder used to fire the weapon and this external powder was connected though a tube in the barrel that led to the main charge. As powder wont burn when wet, this led to difficulty, or even the inability, modern primers are shock sensitive chemicals. In smaller weapons the primer is usually integrated into the rear of a cartridge, in larger weapons like cannon the primer is a separate component placed inside the barrel to the rear of the main propellant charge. The first step to firing a firearm of any sort is igniting the propellant, the earliest firearms were cannons, which were simple closed tubes. There was an aperture, the touchhole, drilled in the closed end of the tube. This hole was filled with finely ground powder, which was ignited with a hot ember or torch. With the advent of firearms, this became an undesirable way of firing a gun. The first attempt to make the process of firing a small arm easier was the matchlock, the matchlock incorporated a lock that was actuated by a trigger, originally called a tricker. The lock was a lever which pivoted when pulled. The match was a burning fuse made of plant fibers that were soaked in a solution of nitrates, charcoal, and sulfur. This slow-match was ignited before the gun was needed, and it would slowly burn, after the gun was loaded and the touchhole primed with powder, the burning tip of the match was positioned so that the lock would bring it into contact with the touchhole. To fire the gun, it was aimed and the trigger pulled and this brought the match down to the touchhole, igniting the powder. With careful attention the slow-burning match could be burning for long periods of time. The next revolution in technology was the wheel-lock. It used a spring-loaded, serrated steel wheel which rubbed against a piece of iron pyrite, a key was used to wind the wheel and put the spring under tension. Once tensioned, the wheel was held in place by a trigger, when the trigger was pulled, the serrated edge of the steel rubbed against the pyrite, generating sparks. These sparks were directed into a pan, called the flash pan, the flashpan usually was protected by a spring-loaded cover that would slide out of the way when the trigger was pulled, exposing the powder to the sparks

7.
Eley Brothers
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Eley Brothers were a manufacturer of firearms cartridges at the Eleys Cartridge Factory, located in Edmonton and bordered by the River Lee Navigation and the Great Eastern Railway at Angel Road. It was founded by Charles and William Eley in London in the 1820s, the Eley Brothers purchased the patent rights to the wire cartridge in the spring or early summer of 1828. The patent for “wire cartridge” was issued by the English Patent Office on 28 November 1827 to Joshua Jenour under Patent No.5570. Mr. Jenour had been born in Fleet Street, London in 1755 and had previously been the owner and manager of the Daily Advertiser, the wire cartridge consisted of a wire cage which held the shot together during the first stages of its flight. In 1828 Charles and William Eley established a factory in Charlotte Street, initially, Charles Eley had been the primary owner of the concern and the original wire cartridges had only the name of Charles Eley on them. The initial attempts to sell the Eley Wire Cartridge went poorly, during the mid-1830s, William Eley reinvigorated the company and began sell the Improved Patent Wire Cartridges. In 1837 the company added percussion caps to their range and though William was killed in an explosion in 1841 and his eldest son William Thomas forged an alliance with Samuel Colt, the two patenting a skin cartridge for use in the latters revolvers. In 1874 they went public to fuel expansion, but lost momentum after 1881 when William Thomas died and his brothers remained in control until 1901 but shareholders accused them of running it as a private company. Nevertheless, innovations included smokeless powder, and in the 1890s,400 types of cartridges were produced and they had established a factory at Tile Kiln Lane, Edmonton, London by 1865. In 1894 the company transferred production to enlarged premises at Angel Road which included a tramway to its wharf on the nearby River Lee. Twice the War Office removed the company from their Approved List of suppliers due to poor quality.303 British ammunition, moreover, poor facilities meant the company had to buy in components, unlike their competitors. In 1900 an explosion killed two workmen, the directors squabbled amongst themselves, and in 1906 the mostly female workforce went on strike when their wages were cut. A leading ballistics expert F W Jones, was brought in to improve matters, after the war, Eleys, along with other firms, became part of Explosive Trades Ltd, soon part of Nobel Industries. Many Belgians had been billeted in Edmonton as refugees and many, as elsewhere and this led to natural links between the two countries, and in the 1920s Eleys went into partnership with Fabrique Nationale, buying out the Belgian firm of Cartoucherie Russo - Belge. However, the need for ammunition had slumped, and the Angel Road factory closed in 1921, the name Eley persists as a brand name for gun cartridges, and in recent years for corrosion-proof-coated lead shot to fill scuba divers shot belts. The shot tower was demolished in the late 20th century, the area today is known as the Eley Industrial Estate. Eley Limited was brought by IMI industries and operated within IMI until 2014 when it was out by an investment company backed by Lloyds TSB. Eley Limited is now located in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, England.450 No 2 Nitro Express in 1903.360 No 2 Nitro Express in 1905.475 No.2 Nitro Express after 1907

8.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state‍—‌the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government

9.
Centerfire ammunition
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A centerfire cartridge is a cartridge with a primer located in the center of the cartridge case head. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the primer is a separate and replaceable component, centerfire cartridges have supplanted the rimfire variety in all but the smallest cartridge sizes. The stronger base of a cartridge is able to withstand higher pressures which in turn give a bullet greater velocity. Larger caliber rimfire cartridges require greater volumes of priming explosive than centerfire cartridges, reducing the amount of priming explosive would reduce the reliability of rimfire cartridge ignition, and increase the probability of misfire or dud cartridges. Economies of scale are achieved through interchangeable primers for a variety of centerfire cartridge calibers. The expensive individual brass cases can be reused after replacing the primer, gunpowder, the forward portion of some empty cases can be reformed for use as obsolete or wildcat cartridges with similar base configuration. Modern cartridges larger than.22 caliber are mostly centerfire, actions suitable for larger caliber rimfire cartridges declined in popularity until the demand for them no longer exceeded manufacturing costs, and they became obsolete. An early form of ammunition, without a percussion cap, was invented between 1808 and 1812 by Jean Samuel Pauly. This was also the first fully integrated cartridge, true centerfire ammunition was invented by the Frenchman Clement Pottet in 1829. However, Pottet would not perfect his design until 1855, the centerfire cartridge was improved by Benjamin Houllier, Gastinne Renette, Charles Lancaster, George Morse, Francois Schneider, Hiram Berdan and Edward Mounier Boxer. The identifying feature of centerfire ammunition is the primer which is a cup containing a primary explosive inserted into a recess in the center of the base of the cartridge. The firearm firing pin crushes this explosive between the cup and an anvil to produce hot gas and a shower of incandescent particles to ignite the powder charge, Berdan priming is less expensive to manufacture and is much more common in military-surplus ammunition made outside the United States. Berdan primers are named after their American inventor, Hiram Berdan of New York who invented his first variation of the Berdan primer and patented it on March 20,1866, in U. S. A small copper cylinder formed the shell of the cartridge, and this system worked well, allowing the option of installing a cap just before use of the propellant-loaded cartridge as well as permitting reloading the cartridge for reuse. S. Berdan primers have remained essentially the same functionally to the present day, Berdan primers are similar to the caps used in the caplock system, being small metal cups with pressure-sensitive explosive in them. Modern Berdan primers are pressed into the pocket of a Berdan-type cartridge case. Inside the primer pocket is a bump, the anvil, that rests against the center of the cup. Berdan cases are reusable, although the process is rather involved, the used primer must be removed, usually by hydraulic pressure or a pincer or lever that pulls the primer out of the bottom

10.
Gunpowder
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Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, the sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Black powder firearms are in limited use today in hunting, shooting, Black powder has been replaced for most industrial uses by high explosives such as dynamite. Black powder is assigned the UN number UN0027 and has a class of 1. 1D. It has a point of approximately 427–464 °C. The specific flash point may vary based on the composition of the gunpowder. Gunpowders specific gravity is 1. 70–1.82 or 1. 92–2.08, Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds, whereas high explosives detonate, ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder thus makes a good propellant, but is suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. Gunpowder was widely used to fill artillery shells and in mining and civil engineering to blast rock until the half of the 19th century. Black powder is used as a delay element in various munitions where its slow-burning properties are valuable. The spread of gunpowder across Asia from China is widely attributed to the Mongols, the earliest record of a written formula for gunpowder appears in the 11th century Song dynasty text, Wujing Zongyao. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China, in the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Muslim world and Europe. The technology spread from China through the Middle East or Central Asia, the earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appear in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The most ardent protagonists were Nathaniel Halhad, Johann Backmann, Quintin Craufurd, however, due to lack of sufficient proof, these theories have not been widely accepted. A major problem confronting the study of the history of gunpowder is ready access to sources close to the events described. The translation difficulty has led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence, early writings potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where old words acquired new meanings. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations

11.
Revolver
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A revolver is a repeating handgun that has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. Revolvers might be regarded as a subset of pistols, or as a subset of handguns. Though the term revolver usually only refers to handguns, other firearms may also have a revolving chamber and these include some models of grenade launchers, shotguns, and rifles. Most revolvers contain five or six rounds in the cylinder, though the original name was revolving gun, the short-hand revolver is universally used. The revolver allows the user to fire multiple rounds without reloading, each time the user cocks the hammer, the cylinder revolves to align the next chamber and round with the hammer and barrel, which gives this type of firearm its name. In a single-action revolver, the user pulls the back with his free hand or thumb. In a double-action revolver, pulling the trigger moves the back, then releases it. Loading and unloading a double-action revolver requires the operator to swing out the cylinder and insert the proper ammunition, the first guns with multichambered cylinders that revolved to feed one barrel were made in the late 16th century in Europe. They were expensive and rare curiosities, not until the 19th century would revolvers become common weapons of industrial production. One of the first was a flintlock revolver patented by Elisha Collier in 1814, the first percussion revolver was made by Lenormand of Paris in 1820 and the first percussion cap revolver was invented by the Italian Francesco Antonio Broccu in 1833. He received a prize of 300 francs for his invention, although he did not patent it, however, in 1835 a similar handgun was patented by Samuel Colt, who would go on to make the first mass-produced revolver. The first cartridge revolvers were produced around 1854 by Eugene Lefaucheux, revolvers soon became standard for nearly all uses. In the early 20th century, semi-automatic pistols were developed, which can hold more rounds, Automatic pistols also have a flat profile, more suitable for concealed carry. Automatic pistols have almost completely replaced revolvers in military and law enforcement use, revolvers still remain popular as back-up and off-duty handguns among American law enforcement officers and security guards. Also, revolvers are still common in the American private sector as defensive, in the development of firearms, an important limiting factor was the time it took to reload the weapon after it was fired. While the user was reloading, the weapon was useless, several approaches to the problem of increasing the rate of fire were developed, the earliest being multi-barrelled weapons which allowed two or more shots without reloading. Later weapons featured multiple barrels revolving along a single axis, the earliest examples of what today is called a revolver were made in Germany in the late 16th century. These weapons featured a barrel with a revolving cylinder holding the powder

12.
Cartridge (firearms)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is often misused to refer to a complete cartridge. The cartridge case seals a firing chamber in all directions excepting the bore, a firing pin strikes the primer and ignites it. The primer compound deflagrates, it does not detonate, a jet of burning gas from the primer ignites the propellant. Gases from the burning powder pressurize and expand the case to seal it against the chamber wall and these propellant gases push on the bullet base. In response to pressure, the bullet will move in the path of least resistance which is down the bore of the barrel. After the bullet leaves the barrel, the pressure drops to atmospheric pressure. The case, which had been expanded by chamber pressure. This eases removal of the case from the chamber, brass is a commonly used case material because it is resistant to corrosion. A brass case head can be work-hardened to withstand the pressures of cartridges. The neck and body portion of a case is easily annealed to make the case ductile enough to allow reforming so that it can be reloaded many times. Steel is used in some plinking ammunition, as well as in military ammunition. Steel is less expensive than brass, but it is not feasible to reload, Military forces typically consider small arms cartridge cases to be disposable, one-time-use devices. However, case weight affects how much ammunition a soldier can carry, conversely, steel is more susceptible to contamination and damage so all such cases are varnished or otherwise sealed against the elements. One downside caused by the strength of steel in the neck of these cases is that propellant gas can blow back past the neck

13.
Enfield Lock
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Enfield Lock is an area in the London Borough of Enfield, north London. It is approximately located east of the Hertford Road between Turkey Street and the Holmesdale Tunnel overpass, and extends to the River Lee Navigation, the locality gains its name from the lock on the River Lee Navigation. Todays Enfield Lock was rebuilt in 1922, the area forms part of the Lee Valley Park and the Enfield Lock Conservation Area. On its eastern boundary Enfield Lock has marshland formerly used as a site between the Royal Small Arms Factory and the Gunpowder Mills. To the south is Brimsdown, the north Waltham Cross and to the west Bullsmoor, Enfield Lock forms part of the London boundary. Enfield Lock is recorded thus in 1710, earlier as Norhtlok, The Locke, i. e. the lock or river barrier, from Middle English lok. The area was first developed from about 1812 when a rifle factory. The factory was built towards the end of the Napoleonic War on the instructions of the Board of Ordnance on marshland at Enfield Lock on the banks of both the River Lea and the River Lee Navigation. The RSAF was closed in the late 1980s, shortly after privatisation, the original machine shop frontage and the older part of the rear structure has been retained and was converted into workshops and retail units by the Enfield Enterprise Agency. Until the construction of the M25 in the 1980s, and the building of the A1055. Roads such as Ordnance Road, Salisbury Road and Medcalf Road are still populated by families who have lived in the Enfield Lock area for several generations. After rioting had spread from neighbouring Tottenham on 8 August 2011, the Home Secretary, Theresa May, was shown the destroyed distribution centre by chief police officers and firefighters on 12 August 2011. In September 2012, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, opened the rebuilt warehouse, the Enfield Lock ward, which also covers Enfield Island Village, is 54% white as of the 2011 census. 23% of the population is black, nick de Bois had previously beaten Joan Ryan, who had served as the Enfield North MP between 1997 and 2010. The path connects with the Lea Valley Walk above Enfield Lock at Ordnance Road, angling is allowed on the River Lee Navigation upstream and downstream of Enfield Lock. Information from the River Lea Anglers Club, national Cycle Route 1 follows the River Lea towpath to Gunpowder Park. Gunpowder Park, which lies to the east of Enfield Lock, is an open space consisting mostly of marshland. The land is owned and managed by the Lee Valley Regional Park and is open to the public

14.
Armory (military)
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An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury or armory are mostly regarded as synonyms, although differences in usage exist. A sub-armory is a place of storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition. From Italian, arsenale, and French, arsenal, from Arabic, دار تعبئة‎‎, dār a-tabiya, in a second-class arsenal, the factories would be replaced by workshops. The situation of an arsenal should be governed by strategic considerations. If of the first class, it should be situated at the base of operations and supply, secure from attack, not too near a frontier, the importance of a large arsenal is such that its defences would be on the scale of those of a large fortress. The usual subdivision of branches in a great arsenal is into storekeeping, under construction, Gun factory, carriage factory, laboratory, small-arms factory, harness and tent factory, powder factory, etc. In a second-class arsenal there would be instead of these factories. Frederick Taylor introduced command and control techniques to arsenals, including the U. S. s Watertown Arsenal, armorer Dresden Armory Halifax Armoury Harpers Ferry Armory Kremlin Armoury Royal Arsenal Royal Armouries Springfield Armory Zeughaus Magazine

15.
Enfield revolver
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The Enfield Revolver was a self-extracting British handgun designed and manufactured at the government-owned Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, initially in the.476 calibre The. The term Enfield Revolver is not applied to Webley Mk VI revolvers built by RSAF Enfield between 1923 and 1926, the Enfield No.2 is an unrelated.38 calibre revolver that was the standard sidearm of British and Commonwealth forces during World War II. NWMP Commissioner Acheson G. Irvine ordered 200 Mark IIs in 1882, priced at C$15.75 each, Irvine liked them so much that, in one of his final acts as Commissioner, he ordered another 600, which were delivered in September 1885. His replacement, Lawrence W. Herchmer, reported the force was entirely outfitted with Enfields and was pleased with them, the first batch was stamped NWMP-CANADA after delivery, later purchases were not. They were top-break single- or double-action, and fitted with lanyard rings, worn spindle arms would fail to hold empty cases on ejection, and worn pivot pins could cause barrels to become loose, resulting in inaccuracy. Its deep rifling would allow firing of slugs of between.449 and.476 in diameter, complaints began arising as early as 1887, influenced in part by the British switching to Webleys, and by 1896, hinge wear and barrel loosening were a real issue. Beginning in late 1904, the Mark II began to be phased out in favor of the.45 calibre Colt New Service revolver, but the Enfield remained in service until 1911. The.476 Enfield cartridge the Enfield Mk I/Mk II were chambered for fired a 265 gr lead bullet, loaded with 18 gr of black powder. The Enfield Mk I/Mk II had a frame, and when the barrel was unlatched. The idea was that the cylinder moved forward far enough to permit fired cases to be completely extracted, but not far enough to permit live cartridges from being removed in the same manner. The system was obsolete as soon as the Enfield Mk I was introduced, barnes, Frank C. ed. by John T. Amber. Cartridges of the World, p.175.476 Ely/.476 Enfield Mk-3, hogg, Ian V. and John Walter. Pistols of the World, 4th Ed. Maze, Robert J. Howdah to High Power, phillips, Roger F. & Klancher, Donald J. Arms & Accoutrements of the Mounted Police 1873-1973. Bloomfield, ON, Museum Restoration Service,1982, the Corps of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Museum of Technology, Pistol Revolver.476 inch Enfield Model 1882

16.
.450 Adams
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The.450 Adams was a British black powder centrefire revolver cartridge, initially used in converted Beaumont–Adams revolvers, in the late 1860s. The.450 was adopted for the Adams revolver in November 1868, and served until it was replaced in service in 1880 by the.476 Enfield, which was in turn supplanted by the.455 Webley cartridge in 1887. Originally loaded with 13 grains of black powder under a 225-grain bullet, despite the different designations, the.450 may be fired in any weapon chambered for.455 Webley.455 Colt, or.476 Enfield. While not considered a military round,450 Mark III cartridges did serve in reserve for the British armed forces as late as the First World War. The.450 Adams also proved popular among users of Webley RIC and British Bulldog revolvers, being loaded in Europe. Both Colt and Smith & Wesson offered revolvers in.450 Adams and it was roughly similar in power to the contemporary.38 S&W.41 Colt, or.44 S&W American. Handloaded ammunition can be made from shortened.455 Webley brass, table of handgun and rifle cartridges Barnes, Frank C. ed. by John T. Amber.450 Revolver, in Cartridges of the World, pp.170 &177. Barnes, Frank C. ed. by John T. Amber.38 Smith & Wesson, in Cartridges of the World, Barnes, Frank C. ed. by John T. Amber.41 Long Colt, in Cartridges of the World, p.165. Barnes, Frank C. ed. by John T. Amber.44 Smith & Wesson American, in Cartridges of the World, p.167. Barnes, Frank C. ed. by John T. Amber.455 Revolver MK-1/.455 Colt, in Cartridges of the World, maze, Robert J. Howdah to High Power. Revive your antique English.450 black powder revolvers

17.
.455 Webley
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.455 Webley is a British handgun cartridge, most commonly used in the Webley top break revolvers Marks I through VI. It is also known as.455 Eley and.455 Colt, the.455 cartridge was a service revolver cartridge, featuring a rimmed cartridge firing a.45 bullet at the relatively low velocity of 650 ft/s. The result was a cartridge and handgun combination with relatively mild recoil. The.455 was rated superior to the.45 Colt in stopping power in the disputed United States Thompson-LaGarde Tests of 1904 that resulted in the adoption by the U. S. of the.45 ACP cartridge. The.455 Webley cartridge remained in service with British and Commonwealth forces until the end of the Second World War, six main types of.455 ammunition were produced.455 Webley Mk I, Introduced in 1891. 265 grain solid lead round-nosed bullet propelled by black powder, all subsequent.455 designs used cordite propellant. In 1894 some Mark I cartridges were loaded with cordite but it was found combustion was more efficient in a shorter case.455 Webley Mk II,265 grain solid lead round-nosed bullet propelled by 6.5 gr cordite. With the change to cordite propellant, case lengths were reduced, there are minor differences between the Mk I and II bullet shape, though these concern the internal dimensions and so are not immediately apparent. Replaced the Mk III until it was replaced by the Mk IV, the bullet was made of a 12,1 ratio lead-tin alloy. Replaced the Mk V until it was replaced by the Mk VI, the bullet was made of a 99% lead and 1% antimony alloy.455 Webley Mk III, Introduced in 1898. The famous Manstopper bullet intended for police, civilian and colonial use, essentially, the Mk III was a 218 grain lead hollowpoint design, propelled by cordite. The cylindrical bullet had hemispherical hollows at each end—one to seal the barrel and this bullet was soon prohibited for use by the military because it was not compliant with the Hague Convention of 1899. The Mark III was withdrawn from service in 1900 and the Mark II was reintroduced.455 Webley Mk IV,220 grain, flat-nosed wadcutter with cordite propellant. Designed with the goal of producing a more effective bullet than the Mark II without violating the terms of the Hague Convention.455 Webley Mk V, identical to the Mk IV bullet, but cast from a harder lead-alloy containing more antimony with cordite propellant. This cartridge was only in use from April through November 1914, upon its withdrawal the Mark II cartridge was returned to service. Remaining stocks were designated for target practice and unloaded cases were loaded with Mark II bullets.455 Webley Mk VI, a 265-grain full-metal-jacketed bullet intended for military purposes, designed to comply with the Hague Convention. This cartridge was used during World War II, the propellant was 5. 5–7.5 gr cordite or 5.5 gr nitro-cellulose. Cordite-loaded cartridges bore a VI on the headstamp while nitrocellulose-loaded cartridges were indicated with a VIz, the urgency was such that the earliest of these were converted from revolvers already completed and chambered for.44 Special

18.
Smokeless powder
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Smokeless powder is the name given to a number of propellants used in firearms and artillery that produce negligible smoke when fired, unlike the black powder they replaced. The basis of the term smokeless is that the products are mainly gaseous. Despite its name, smokeless powder is not completely free of smoke, while there may be little noticeable smoke from small-arms ammunition, since the 14th century gunpowder was not actually a physical powder, and smokeless powder can be produced only as a pelletized or extruded granular material. Smokeless powder allowed the development of modern semi- and fully automatic firearms and lighter breeches, burnt black powder leaves a thick, heavy fouling that is hygroscopic and causes rusting of the barrel. The fouling left by smokeless powder exhibits none of these properties and this makes an autoloading firearm with many moving parts feasible. However, they are used as propellants, in normal use. Before the widespread introduction of smokeless powder the use of black powder caused many problems on the battlefield, Military commanders since the Napoleonic Wars reported difficulty with giving orders on a battlefield obscured by the smoke of firing. Verbal commands could not be heard above the noise of the guns, unless there was a strong wind, after a few shots, soldiers using black powder ammunition would have their view obscured by a huge cloud of smoke. Snipers or other concealed shooters were given away by a cloud of smoke over the firing position, black powder is also corrosive, making cleaning mandatory after every use. Likewise, black powders tendency to produce severe fouling caused actions to jam, nitroglycerine was synthesized by the Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero in 1847. Nitroglycerine is also sensitive, making it unfit to be carried in battlefield conditions. A major step forward was the discovery of guncotton, a nitrocellulose-based material and he promoted its use as a blasting explosive and sold manufacturing rights to the Austrian Empire. Guncotton was more powerful than gunpowder, but at the time was once again somewhat more unstable. John Taylor obtained an English patent for guncotton, and John Hall & Sons began manufacture in Faversham, English interest languished after an explosion destroyed the Faversham factory in 1847. Small arms could not withstand the pressures generated by guncotton, Abel patented this process in 1865 when the second Austrian guncotton factory exploded. After the Stowmarket factory exploded in 1871, Waltham Abbey began production of guncotton for torpedo, in 1863, Prussian artillery captain Johann F. E. Schultze patented a small-arms propellent of nitrated hardwood impregnated with saltpeter or barium nitrate. Prentice received an 1866 patent for a powder of nitrated paper manufactured at Stowmarket. In 1871, Frederick Volkmann received an Austrian patent for a version of Schultze powder called Collodin

19.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is both a federal and a national police force of Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police with the Dominion Police, the former was originally named the North-West Mounted Police, and was given the Royal prefix by King Edward VII in 1904. The RCMP-GRC wording is protected under the Trade-marks Act, larger cities may form their own municipal police departments. The two most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec, maintain provincial forces, the Ontario Provincial Police, the other eight provinces contract policing responsibilities to the RCMP. The RCMP provides front-line policing in those provinces under the direction of the provincial governments, when Newfoundland joined the confederation in 1949, the RCMP entered the province and absorbed the then Newfoundland Ranger Force, which patrolled most of Newfoundlands rural areas. The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary patrols urban areas of the province, in the territories, the RCMP is the sole territorial police force. Many municipalities throughout Canada contract to the RCMP, thus, the RCMP polices at the federal, provincial, and municipal level. It is the police force of any sort in several areas of Canada. The RCMP is responsible for an unusually large breadth of duties, under their federal mandate, the RCMP police throughout Canada, including Ontario and Quebec. Under provincial and municipal contracts the RCMP provides front-line policing in all areas outside of Ontario, there are detachments located in small villages in the far north, remote First Nations reserves, and rural towns, but also larger cities such as Surrey, British Columbia. There, support units investigate for their own detachments, and smaller municipal police forces, investigations include major crimes, homicides, forensic identification, collision forensics, police dogs, emergency response teams, explosives disposal, and undercover operations. CSIS is not part of the RCMP, but is its own entity, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald first began planning a permanent force to patrol the North-West Territories after the Dominion of Canada purchased the territory from the Hudsons Bay Company. Reports from Army officers surveying the territory led to the recommendation that a force of between 100 to 150 mounted riflemen could maintain law and order. The Prime Minister first announced the force as the North West Mounted Rifles, however, officials in the United States raised concerns that an armed force along the border was a prelude to a military buildup. Macdonald then renamed the force the North-West Mounted Police when formed in 1873, the force added Royal to its name in 1904. It merged with the Dominion Police, the police force for all points east of Manitoba. As part of its security and intelligence functions, the RCMP infiltrated ethnic or political groups considered to be dangerous to Canada. This included the Communist Party of Canada, but also a variety of minority cultural, the force was also deeply involved in immigration matters, and especially deportations of suspected radicals

20.
.45 Colt
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The.45 Colt or.45 Long Colt cartridge is a handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It is a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver and this cartridge was adopted by the U. S. Army in 1873 and served as an official US military handgun cartridge for 14 years. Colt began work on the revolver in 1871, and submitted a sample to the U. S. Army in late 1872, the revolver was accepted for purchase in 1873. The cartridge is an inside lubricated type, the rebated heel type bullet design of its predecessor, the.44 Colt, was eliminated, since it was an outside lubricated type, which would pick up dirt and grit during handling. The.45 Colt replaced the.50 caliber Model 1871 Remington single shot pistol, while the Colt remained popular, the Smith & Wesson M1875 Army Schofield Revolver was approved as an alternate which created a logistic problem for the Army. Adoption of the.45 M1887 Military Ball Cartridge resolved the Armys ammunition logistic problems, the M1887 Govt round was replaced by the.38 Long Colt in 1892. In 1909, the.45 M1909 round was issued along with the.45 Colt New Service revolver and this round was never loaded commercially, and is almost identical to the original.45 Colt round, except having a larger diameter rim. The rim is large enough that it cannot be loaded in adjacent chambers in the rod-ejector Colt model, the.45 Colt remains popular with renewed interest in Cowboy Action Shooting. The modern.45 Colt bullet has changed as well, and it is now.451 inches in diameter for jacketed bullets, the.45 Colt became the basis for other rounds, such as the.454 Casull. The.45 Colt originally was a cartridge, but modern loadings use smokeless powder. The original black-powder loads called for 28 to 40 grains of powder behind a 230-to-255-grain lead bullet. These loads developed muzzle velocities of up to 1,050 ft/s, because of this power and its excellent accuracy, the.45 Colt was the most-used cartridge at the time of its introduction, succeeding the.44 WCF. The.45 Colt at that time did not enjoy the. 44-40s advantage of a Winchester rifle chambered for it, the rumor was that early.45 Colt cartridges had a very minimal rim, and would not eject reliably. Currently manufactured brass has a rim of adequate diameter for such uses, modern Winchesters, Marlins and replicas have remedied this omission almost 100 years after the fact, and the.45 Colt is now available in modern lever-action rifles. While this has one of numerous arguments to explain the lack of a rifle chambered in.45 Colt, in fact. It required the expiration of those original patents for the.45 Colt to become available in a rifle, todays standard factory loads develop around 400 ft·lbf of muzzle energy at about 860 ft/s, making it roughly equivalent to modern.45 ACP loads. There are Cowboy Action Shooting loads which develop muzzle velocities of around 750 ft/s, cartridges of the World states that.45 Colt should never be loaded to more than 800 fps. Some handloads and factory manufactured cartridges put this round in the class as the.44 Magnum using special revolvers

21.
Colt New Service
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The Colt New Service is a double-action revolver made by Colt from 1898 until 1941. It was adopted by the U. S. Armed Forces in caliber 45 Revolver Model of 1909 as the Model 1909 U. S. Army, Marine Corps Model 1909, Model 1909 U. S. Navy, the Model 1917 was created to supplement insufficient stocks of M1911 pistols during World War I. The Colt New Service was the largest revolver ever manufactured by Colt, there are several generational variants including the Old Model, Transitional Model, Improved Model and Late Model. A Target Model, Shooting Master and Deluxe Target Model were offered as well, the Colt M1917 Revolver was a New Service with a cylinder bored to take the.45 ACP cartridge and the half-moon clips to hold the rimless cartridges in position. Later production Colt M1917 revolvers had headspacing machined into the cylinder chambers, during its lifetime, the Colt New Service was the most popular revolver made by Colt, surpassing 150,000 units. After World War I, the revolver gained a following among civilian shooters. John Henry Fitzgerald was an employee of Colt prior to World War II and was known to carry of a pair of New Service Fitz Specials in his front pockets. These revolvers had bobbed hammers,2 barrels, shortened and rounded grip frames, although less than 30 left the factory, it became an after-market conversion for many gunsmiths. Colonels Rex Applegate and Charles Askins were proponents of this model, in 1899 Canada acquired a number of New Service revolvers for Boer War service, to supplement its existing Model 1878 Colt Double Action revolvers in the same caliber. In 1904/5 the North-West Mounted Police in Canada also adopted the Colt New Service to replace the less-than satisfactory Enfield Mk II revolver in service since 1882, New Service revolvers, designated as Pistol, Colt. 455-inch 5. 5-inch barrel Mk. I, chambered for the.455 Webley cartridge were acquired for issue as substitute standard by the British War Department during World War I. British Empire Colt New Service Revolvers were stamped NEW SERVICE.455 ELEY on the barrel, British Empire and Canadian forces received 60,000 Colt New Service revolvers during World War I and they continued to see official service with US until the end of World War II. Antique Guns Chamberlain & Taylerson, W. H. J, Revolvers of the British Services, 1854-1954. Bloomfield, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY, Museum Restoration Service, bloomfield, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY, Museum Restoration Service. Maze, Robert J. Howdah to High Power, A Century of Breechloading Service Pistols, aledo, Illinois, World-Wide Gun Report, Inc. Phillips & Klancher, Roger F. & Donald J. Arms & Accoutrements of the Mounted Police, 1873-1973. Bloomfield, ON and Alexandria Bay, NY, Museum Restoration Service, the Colt Revolver in the American West—New Service Guns and Ammo Magazine article on Colt New Service Revolver Colt New Service Revolver

22.
Cordite
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Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and these produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants, or high explosives. The hot gases produced by burning gunpowder or cordite generate sufficient pressure to propel a bullet or shell to its target, Cordite was used initially in the. Cordite was also used for weapons, such as tank guns, artillery. It has been used mainly for this purpose since the late 19th century by the UK and its use was further developed before World War II, and as 2-and-3-inch-diameter Unrotated Projectiles for launching anti-aircraft weapons. Small cordite rocket charges were developed for ejector seats made by the Martin-Baker Company. Cordite was also used in the system of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima in August 1945. The term cordite generally disappeared from official publications between the wars, during World War II double based propellants were very widely used and there was some use of triple based propellants by artillery. For small arms it has replaced by other propellants, such as the Improved Military Rifle line of extruded powder or the WC844 ball propellant currently in use in the 5. 56×45mm NATO. Production ceased in the United Kingdom, around the end of the 20th century, with the closure of the last of the World War II cordite factories, triple base propellant for UK service is now manufactured in Germany. Gunpowder, a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate, was the original propellant employed in firearms. It was used from about 10th or 11th century onwards, but it had disadvantages, the first smokeless powder was developed in 1865 by Major Johann F. E. Schultze of the Prussian artillery. His formulation was composed of nitrolignose impregnated with saltpetre or barium nitrate, in 1882 the Explosive Company of Stowmarket introduced EC Powder, which contained nitro-cotton and nitrates of potassium and barium in a grain gelatinesed by ether alcohol. It had coarser grains than other nitrocellulose powders and it proved unsuitable for rifles, but it remained in long use for shotguns and was later used for grenades and fragmentation bombs. In 1884, the French chemist Paul Vieille produced a smokeless propellant that had some success and it was made out of collodion, resulting in a plastic colloidal substance which was rolled into very thin sheets, then dried and cut up into small flakes. It was immediately adopted by the French military for their Mle 1886 infantry rifle, the rifle and the cartridge developed to use this powder were known generically as the 8mm Lebel, after the officer who developed its 8 mm full metal jacket bullet. The following year,1887, Alfred Nobel invented and patented a smokeless propellant he called Ballistite and it was composed of 10% camphor, 45% nitroglycerine and 45% collodion. Over time the camphor tended to evaporate, leaving an unstable explosive, using acetone as a solvent, it was extruded as spaghetti-like rods initially called cord powder or the Committees modification of Ballistite, but this was swiftly abbreviated to Cordite

23.
Colt's Manufacturing Company
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Colts Manufacturing Company is an American firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt. It is the corporation to Colts earlier firearms-making efforts, which started in 1836. Colts earliest designs played a role in the popularization of the revolver. Although Samuel Colt did not invent the concept, his designs resulted in the first very successful ones. The most famous Colt products include the Colt Walker, made 1847 in the facilities of Eli Whitney Jr. Though they did not develop it, for a long time Colt was also responsible for all AR-15 and M16 rifle production. The most successful and famous of these are numerous M16 carbines, including the Colt Commando family, in 2002, Colt Defense was split off from Colts Manufacturing Company. Colts Manufacturing Company now serves the market, while Colt Defense serves the law enforcement, military. The two companies remained in the same West Hartford, Connecticut location cross-licensing certain merchandise before reuniting in 2013, following the loss of its M4 contract in 2013, Colt was briefly in Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, starting in 2015. Samuel Colt received a British patent on his design for a revolver in 1835. That same year, he founded his first corporation for its manufacture, the first firearm manufactured at the new Paterson plant, however, was the Colt First Model Ring Lever rifle beginning in 1837. This was followed thereafter in late 1837 by the introduction of the Colt Paterson. This corporation suffered quality problems in production, making firearms with interchangeable parts was still rather new, and it was not yet easy to replicate across different factories. Interchangeability was not complete in the Paterson works, and traditional gunsmithing techniques did not fill the gap entirely there, the Colt Paterson revolver found patchy success and failure, some worked well, while others had problems. The United States Marine Corps and United States Army reported quality problems with these earliest Colt revolvers, production had ended at the New Jersey corporation by 1842. Colt made another attempt at revolver production in 1846 and submitted a prototype to the US government, during the Mexican–American War, this prototype was seen by Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker who made some suggestions to Colt about making it in a larger caliber. Having no factory or machinery to produce the pistols, Samuel Colt collaborated with the Whitney armory of Whitneyville and this armory was run by the family of Eli Whitney. Eli Whitney Jr, the son of the patriarch, was the head of the family armory

24.
Smith & Wesson
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Smith & Wesson is a manufacturer of firearms in the United States. The corporate headquarters are based in Springfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1852, Smith & Wessons pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world, in addition to their popularity among sport shooters. Apart from firearms, Smith & Wesson has been known for the types of ammunition it has introduced over the years. Wesson founded the Smith & Wesson Company in Norwich, Connecticut in 1852 to develop the Volcanic rifle, Smith developed a new Volcanic Cartridge, which he patented in 1854. The Smith & Wesson Company was renamed Volcanic Repeating Arms in 1855, Smith left the company and returned to his native Springfield, Massachusetts, Wesson stayed on as plant manager with Volcanic Repeating Arms. As Samuel Colts patent on the revolver was set to expire in 1856 and his research pointed out that a former Colt employee named Rollin White held the patent for a Bored-through cylinder, a component he would need for his invention. Wesson reconnected with Smith and the two partners approached White to manufacture a newly designed revolver-and-cartridge combination, rather than make White a partner in their company, Smith and Wesson paid him a royalty of $0.25 on every revolver that they made. It would become Whites responsibility to defend his patent in any court cases which led to his financial ruin. The orders for the Smith & Wesson Model 1 revolver outpaced the production capabilities. In 1860 demand was so great that Smith & Wesson expanded into a new facility, at the same time, the companys design was being infringed upon by other manufacturers which led to numerous lawsuits filed by Rollin White. In many of these part of the restitution came in the form of the offender being forced to stamp Manufactured for Smith & Wesson on the revolvers in question. Whites vigorous defense of his patent caused a problem for armsmakers in the United States at the time as they could not manufacture cartridge revolvers, at the end of the war the US Government charged White with causing the retardation of arms development in America. Demand for revolvers declined at the close of the Civil War, in 1870 the company introduced a large frame revolver in heavier calibers than the pocket sized revolvers it had been making. The design was known as the Smith & Wesson Model 3, after an organized campaign by the NRA and NSSF, thousands of retailers and tens of thousands of firearms consumers boycotted Smith & Wesson. On 11 May 2001, Saf-T-Hammer Corporation acquired Smith & Wesson Corp. from Tomkins plc for US$15 million, Saf-T-Hammer assumed US$30 million in debt, bringing the total purchase price to US$45 million. The acquisition of Smith & Wesson was chiefly brokered by Saf-T-Hammer President Bob Scott, after the purchase, Scott became the president of Smith & Wesson to guide the 157-year-old company back to its former standing in the market. On 15 February 2002, the name of the newly formed entity was changed to Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation, about 2006 Smith & Wesson refocused its marketing on big box retailers, according to Smith & Wesson CEO Mike Golden in a 2008 conference call with investors. In December 2014, Smith & Wesson Holding announced it was paying $130.5 million for Battenfeld Technologies, the company made the acquisition with the eventual intent to merge all its existing Smith & Wesson, M&P and Thompson Center Arms accessories into a single division

25.
List of handgun cartridges
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List of repeating handgun cartridges, approximately in order of increasing caliber. Military Small Arms of the 20th Century

26.
Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
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Table of selected handgun, submachine gun, rifle and machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load, number of manufacturers currently producing complete cartridges - e. g. Norma, RWS, Hornady, Winchester, Federal, Remington, Sellier&Bellot, Prvi Partizan. May be none for obsolete and wildcat cartridges, a guide to the recoil from the cartridge, and an indicator of bullet penetration potential. The. 30-06 Springfield is considered the limit for tolerable recoil for inexperienced rifle shooters

27.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker

Royal Small Arms Factory
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The Royal Small Arms Factory was a UK government-owned rifle factory in the London Borough of Enfield in an area generally known as the Lea Valley. The factory produced British military rifles, muskets and swords from 1816 and it closed in 1988, but some of its work was transferred to other sites. The factory was located at Enfield Lock on an islan

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RSAF machine shop overlooking basin, November 2007

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US Marine firing the L1A1 rifle

British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history an

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A replica of The Matthew, John Cabot 's ship used for his second voyage to the New World.

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Flag

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African slaves working in 17th-century Virginia, by an unknown artist, 1670.

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Fort St. George was founded at Madras in 1639.

British Army
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The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom. As of 2017 the British Army comprises just over 80,000 trained Regular, or full-time, personnel and just over 26,500 trained Reserve, or part-time personnel. Therefore, the UK Parliament approves the continued existence of the Army by passing an Armed Forces Act at least on

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Men of the Welsh Guards Trooping the Colour 2007.

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John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was one of the first generals in the British Army, fighting campaigns in the War of the Spanish Succession.

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The extinction of the Scottish clan system came with the defeat of the clansmen at the Battle of Culloden in 1746

North-West Mounted Police
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The North-West Mounted Police was a Canadian police force. It was established in 1873, and in 1904 the name was changed to Royal Northwest Mounted Police, in 1920 it merged with the Dominion Police to become the current Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Reports from Army officers surveying the territory led to the recommendation that a force of 100 to

Bullet
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The word bullet is a firearm term. A bullet is a projectile expelled from the barrel of a firearm, the term is from Middle French and originated as the diminutive of the word boulle which means small ball. Bullets are made of a variety of materials and they are available singly as they would be used in muzzle loading and cap and ball firearms, as p

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Lead sling bullets, ca. 100 g with a winged thunderbolt engraved on one side and the inscription "Take that" (ΔΕΞΑΙ) on the other side. Athens, 4th century BC.

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A modern cartridge consists of the following: 1. the bullet, as the projectile; 2. the case, which holds all parts together; 3. the propellant, for example gunpowder or cordite; 4. the rim, which provides the extractor on the firearm a place to grip the casing to remove it from the chamber once fired; 5. the primer, which ignites the propellant.

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Matchlock musket balls, alleged to have been discovered at Naseby battlefield.

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This bullet mold was designed for use with the.44 caliber Colt Army Model 1860 revolver. The mold includes chambers for casting round balls and conical Minié ball. This mold is from the collection of the Minnesota Historical Society.

Primer (firearm)
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In firearm ballistics, the primer is a component of pistol, rifle, and shotgun rounds. Early primers were simply the same black powder used to fire the weapon and this external powder was connected though a tube in the barrel that led to the main charge. As powder wont burn when wet, this led to difficulty, or even the inability, modern primers are

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Percussion caps

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Fired rimfire and centerfire casings

Eley Brothers
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Eley Brothers were a manufacturer of firearms cartridges at the Eleys Cartridge Factory, located in Edmonton and bordered by the River Lee Navigation and the Great Eastern Railway at Angel Road. It was founded by Charles and William Eley in London in the 1820s, the Eley Brothers purchased the patent rights to the wire cartridge in the spring or ear

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Eley Brothers

United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border wi

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Stonehenge, in Wiltshire, was erected around 2500 BC.

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Flag

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The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Battle of Hastings, 1066, and the events leading to it.

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The Treaty of Union led to a single united kingdom encompassing all Great Britain.

Centerfire ammunition
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A centerfire cartridge is a cartridge with a primer located in the center of the cartridge case head. Unlike rimfire cartridges, the primer is a separate and replaceable component, centerfire cartridges have supplanted the rimfire variety in all but the smallest cartridge sizes. The stronger base of a cartridge is able to withstand higher pressures

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Centerfire Cartridge

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The primer of this unfired cartridge has been sealed with red lacquer to prevent oil or moisture from reaching the powder charge and priming explosive.

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The same cartridge (.45 ACP shown here) can have different primer sizes depending on manufacturer.

Gunpowder
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Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, the sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Black powder firearms are in limited use today in hunting, shooting, Black powder has been replaced for most industrial uses by high expl

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A Mongol bomb thrown against a charging Japanese samurai during the Mongol invasions of Japan after founding the Yuan Dynasty, 1281.

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Yuan Dynasty hand cannon dated to 1288.

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Chinese Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) matchlock firearms

Revolver
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A revolver is a repeating handgun that has a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers and at least one barrel for firing. Revolvers might be regarded as a subset of pistols, or as a subset of handguns. Though the term revolver usually only refers to handguns, other firearms may also have a revolving chamber and these include some models of g

Cartridge (firearms)
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Military and commercial producers continue to pursue the goal of caseless ammunition. A cartridge without a bullet is called a blank, One that is completely inert is called a dummy. Some artillery ammunition uses the same concept as found in small arms. In other cases, the shell is separate from the propellant charge. In popular use, the bullet is

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(From Left to Right): A .577 Snider cartridge (1867), a .577/450 Martini-Henry cartridge (1871), a later drawn brass.577/450 Martini-Henry cartridge, and a .303 British Mk VII SAA Ball cartridge.

Enfield Lock
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Enfield Lock is an area in the London Borough of Enfield, north London. It is approximately located east of the Hertford Road between Turkey Street and the Holmesdale Tunnel overpass, and extends to the River Lee Navigation, the locality gains its name from the lock on the River Lee Navigation. Todays Enfield Lock was rebuilt in 1922, the area form

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Government Row former Royal Small Arms Factory RSAF workers' cottages (August 1997)

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Royal Small Arms Factory

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River Lee Navigation above Enfield Lock. The River Lea proper can be seen in the background

Armory (military)
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An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury or armory are mostly regarded as synonyms, although differences in usage exist. A sub-armory is a place of storage or carrying of weapons and ammunition. From Italian, ars

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View of the Entrance to the Arsenal, by Canaletto, 1732.

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Cannons and mortars of Napoleon 's Army exhibited along the wall of the Kremlin Arsenal.

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The Royal Armoury, Leeds

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Armory of Swiss Guard

Enfield revolver
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The Enfield Revolver was a self-extracting British handgun designed and manufactured at the government-owned Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, initially in the.476 calibre The. The term Enfield Revolver is not applied to Webley Mk VI revolvers built by RSAF Enfield between 1923 and 1926, the Enfield No.2 is an unrelated.38 calibre revolver that

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Enfield Mk II Revolver

.450 Adams
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The.450 Adams was a British black powder centrefire revolver cartridge, initially used in converted Beaumont–Adams revolvers, in the late 1860s. The.450 was adopted for the Adams revolver in November 1868, and served until it was replaced in service in 1880 by the.476 Enfield, which was in turn supplanted by the.455 Webley cartridge in 1887. Origin

.455 Webley
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.455 Webley is a British handgun cartridge, most commonly used in the Webley top break revolvers Marks I through VI. It is also known as.455 Eley and.455 Colt, the.455 cartridge was a service revolver cartridge, featuring a rimmed cartridge firing a.45 bullet at the relatively low velocity of 650 ft/s. The result was a cartridge and handgun combina

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M1911 pistol "British Service Model", which uses the Webley Auto Mk I cartridge. The weapon is stamped with ".455" on the slide and the underside of the magazine

Smokeless powder
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Smokeless powder is the name given to a number of propellants used in firearms and artillery that produce negligible smoke when fired, unlike the black powder they replaced. The basis of the term smokeless is that the products are mainly gaseous. Despite its name, smokeless powder is not completely free of smoke, while there may be little noticeabl

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Finnish smokeless powder

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Poudre B single-base smokeless powder flakes

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Close-up of Cordite filaments in a .303 British rifle cartridge (manufactured in 1964)

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Ammunition handloading powders

Royal Canadian Mounted Police
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The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is both a federal and a national police force of Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was formed in 1920 by the merger of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police with the Dominion Police, the former was originally named the North-West Mounted Police, and was given the Royal prefix by King Edward VII in 1904. The RC

.45 Colt
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The.45 Colt or.45 Long Colt cartridge is a handgun cartridge dating to 1872. It is a black-powder revolver round developed for the Colt Single Action Army revolver and this cartridge was adopted by the U. S. Army in 1873 and served as an official US military handgun cartridge for 14 years. Colt began work on the revolver in 1871, and submitted a sa

Colt New Service
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The Colt New Service is a double-action revolver made by Colt from 1898 until 1941. It was adopted by the U. S. Armed Forces in caliber 45 Revolver Model of 1909 as the Model 1909 U. S. Army, Marine Corps Model 1909, Model 1909 U. S. Navy, the Model 1917 was created to supplement insufficient stocks of M1911 pistols during World War I. The Colt New

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Colt New Service

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Colt New Service "Shooting Master" made c. 1930 - 1941

Cordite
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Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace gunpowder as a military propellant. Like gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burning rates and these produce a subsonic deflagration wave rather than the supersonic detonation wave produced by brisants,

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A stick of cordite from World War II

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A sectioned British 18 pounder field gun shrapnel round, World War I, with bound string to simulate the appearance of the original cordite propellant

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Close-up of cordite filaments in a .303 British Rifle cartridge (manufactured in 1964).

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Sir James Dewar at work

Colt's Manufacturing Company
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Colts Manufacturing Company is an American firearms manufacturer, founded in 1855 by Samuel Colt. It is the corporation to Colts earlier firearms-making efforts, which started in 1836. Colts earliest designs played a role in the popularization of the revolver. Although Samuel Colt did not invent the concept, his designs resulted in the first very s

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Original Walker Colt

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Colt's Manufacturing Company, LLC

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Colt Model of 1848 Holster Pistol (First Model Dragoon)

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Colt's Armory from an 1857 engraving viewed from the East

Smith & Wesson
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Smith & Wesson is a manufacturer of firearms in the United States. The corporate headquarters are based in Springfield, Massachusetts, founded in 1852, Smith & Wessons pistols and revolvers have become standard issue to police and armed forces throughout the world, in addition to their popularity among sport shooters. Apart from firearms, Smith & W

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Bullet coming from a Smith & Wesson 686.357 Magnum, taken with an air-gap flash.

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Smith & Wesson Volcanic, caliber.31, between 1854 and 1855

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Smith & Wesson Model 1 Second Issue,.22 rimfire

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Smith & Wesson Army No 2, made 1863, caliber.32 Rimfire

List of handgun cartridges
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List of repeating handgun cartridges, approximately in order of increasing caliber. Military Small Arms of the 20th Century

Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
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Table of selected handgun, submachine gun, rifle and machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load, number of manufacturers currently producing complete cartridges - e. g. Norma, RWS, Hornady, Winchester, Federal, Remington, Sellier&Bellot, Prvi Partizan. May be none

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Common rifle cartridges, from the largest .50BMG to the smallest .22LR

International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning

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A 13-digit ISBN, 978-3-16-148410-0, as represented by an EAN-13 bar code